Santorini’s Greek Grill To Open in Sandy

Santorini’s Greek Grill could be considered the Cafe Rio of Greek cuisine. At its Farmington and West Bountiful locations, you can watch your meal being custom-built the way you want it. And a third location is slated for a “soft opening” the weekend of Oct.16 at The Commons at Southtowne, 10400 State St, Sandy, according to founder Sean Dehghani. 

The customized assembly-line concept has worked well for fast casual restaurants like Cafe Rio, Costa Vida, Blaze Pizza, Cafe Zupas, and even Subway sandwiches. So owner Sean Dehghani applied it to Greek food when he opened in 2018 at Farmington Station Park.

Its continued success, he said, is due to three factors: “Customer experience, food quality, and speed.”

In November 2020, he opened a second store at 135 North 500 West in West Bountiful.

Dehghani said multiple locations were always part of his plan — “Go big or go home.”

A Greek seaside wall mural greets you when you walk into the restaurant. At the counter, you’ll find lots of ingredient choices to mix and match, even for people who aren’t Greek food fans.

   “We definitely don’t claim to be traditional Greek,” Dehghani said. “This is a modern take on Mediterranean flavors and not-so-Mediterranean flavors. So there’s something for guy who wants a barbecue chicken salad, or the guy who wants a traditional pita with gyro meat.”

   To build your own meal, you first pick a base: white or wheat pita bread; lemon rice, fries, lettuce, fresh spinach, or Greek salad (chopped lettuce, tomato and onion). There are enough options that you can go healthy or not-so-healthy; it’s up to you.

  Next you choose a protein — lemon chicken, garlic herb chicken, smoked BBQ  chicken, gyro meat, chicken gyro meat, grilled steak, grilled pork, grilled shrimp, or veggie falafel.

   Then you add your choice of toppings — chopped tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta cheese, chickpeas, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, beets, shredded carrots, corn, pepperoncini, red cabbage, corn, asparagus, dolmathes, feta, Greek slaw, or kalamata olives.

  Then you choose from about a dozen different sauces, including tzatziki (yogurt-cucumber), hummus, honey mango, olive oil and balsamic, and ranch. 

   The huge stuffed pitas are tied with twine to hold them together, but they are so loaded with ingredients that they can get pretty sloppy to eat. You’ll definitely want a knife and fork.

  The restaurant’s top-seller is the traditional Greek bowl ($11), with lemon rice, lemon chicken, topped with Greek salad, feta and kalamata olives, with tzatziki sauce.

  “That’s our go-to dish for any first-timer,” said Deghani said.

  Another favorite is the traditional gyro —a fresh pita stuffed with gyro meat, Greek salad mix, feta and kalamata olives ($12).

  “And to serve it Santorini style, we will stuff it with French fries,” said Dehghani. “If you were to get one in the streets of Greece, that’s how they would serve it.”

  You can also get an order of “loaded” French fries – spicy parmesan, feta, Greek garlic, sweet potato waffle or street cart fries.

  On the sweeter side, there’s a yogurt bar — thick Greek yogurt, and a choice of fruit and granola toppings, with several different types of local honey. 

Or you can choose the traditional baklava or loukimades, or a baklava shake — a vanilla base topped with shaved baklava and whipped cream.

  Dehghani, who lives in Clinton, has Mediterranean roots. He was born and raised in the U.S., but his Persian parents immigrated from Iran. Before opening Santorini’s, he worked at the Sbarro’s pizza chain and CousCous Grill, a Mediterranean-style restaurant. He also ran his own Greek restaurant.

  “After I closed my traditional Greek restaurant, I sat down to try to develop a new concept that would be easier for me,” he said. “It seemed like people are leaning towards the fast-casual, build-your-own style.”

  The assembly-line concept would simplify preparation, “for instance, the amount of time we took to thread chicken on a skewer for souvlaki. Instead, we marinate the chicken, grill it, and we are done.”

  Santorini is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. But it was also the name written in chalk on top of his young son’s play kitchen. So when he was considering a name for the restaurant, Santorini’s seemed like a good fit.

   I got to know Sean when I hosted a Chew and Chat lunch at the Farmington restaurant. He shared his food philosophy, and even brought out a few signature dishes for us to try. (The lunches were fun, but Covid put a damper on them.)

The Covid pandemic brought some unexpected challenges. Dehghani signed a lease for the Bountiful location — which formerly housed Paradise Bakery — around March 1, 2020. Soon after, Utah restaurants had to shut down indoor dining to “flatten the curve.”

  “I had two choices — try to scrap the entire deal, or hope for the best and continue in the brand we created,” he said. “I felt good about Davis County and our involvement in the community. I felt we had the county behind us.”

  As for the Farmington location, “We didn’t let the pandemic slow us down. We did a lot of take-out. We didn’t cut hours. That way, we were able to give people the routine they wanted.”

During that time, he provided over 200 free meals for first responders and Covid-19 front line workers at Farmington’s University of Utah Hospital in Station Park, and other community events.

  Dehghani is moving forward, opening his third store at The Commons at South Towne in Sandy. He faces the same challenges currently plaguing other restaurants — higher food prices, and shortage of supplies and staff.

  “We are spending more money than we have to offer sign-on bonuses,” he said. “But we have a positive attitude.”

  Locations: 290 Central Avenue, Farmington

                  135 N. 500 West, West Bountiful

The Commons at South Towne, 10400 S. State St. in Sandy.

  Contact:  (801) 451-5850; https://www.santorinisgreek.com

  Hours:  Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, Noon-8 p.m.

  Prices: Entrees, $10-$12; kids meals, $7; desserts, $5-10.